After the success of the first edition in 2014, the European Commission has launched seeks the European Capital of Innovation for 2016, to celebrate the European city which is building the best “innovation ecosystem”- connecting citizens, public organizations, academia, and business. The award is addressed to cities over 100.000 inhabitants from EU Member States and Associated Countries to Horizon 2020, the European research and innovation programme.
The winner of the “European Capital of Innovation Award 2016” will be selected among the cities’ actual achievements and the potential intended scaling up activities against the following award criteria:
- Innovative
- Inspiring
- Integrated
- Interactive
- Impactful
It will aim to provide European level recognition to those cities that make the most to promote innovation within their communities and thereby improve the quality of their citizens’ lives. It will address the challenge of fostering innovation through actions at city level, by acknowledging innovative solutions to build up an innovation ecosystem and ideas to further expand and scale up these initiatives, thereby leveraging and inducing further systemic innovation in cities.
The deadline for submission of applications 18 November 2015 at 17:00 (Brussels time) and applications are submitted through the Participant Portal.